Clem's
Kuching Tomato Sauce Fried Noodles |
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There are three iconic
culinary items which spell Kuching viz. Kuching Laksa,
Kolong Mee, and Tomato Sauce* Fried Noodles. The
latter can be wonton noodles of kuay teow (rice flat
noodles). They are wok fried and then a gravy/sauce richly
flavoured (and coloured) with tomato ketchup is poured over
them. The dish is not difficult to prepare. Here is how:

Clem's Tomato
Sauce Fried Noodles
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1. Ingredients
- Wonton noodles, or Kuay Teow
(rice flat noodles).
Wonton noodles are thin, soft, flour-coated and uncooked,
unlike the thicker, oily cooked yellow noodles.
- Your choice of meats.
I used seafood (prawns and Hokkaido Scallops), and chicken.
- Your choice of greens; chopped to
your preferred size.
I used baby Bak Choi.
- Oyster, fish, and light soy sauce.
- Chopped garlic.
- Chopped onion.
- Condiments.
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2.
Method
Deep fry the wonton noodles
- Heat up plenty of cooking oil
(enough to fully cover the noodles during frying).
Ensure that the temperature is high (between 160 and 175oC)
enough or else the noodles will not crisp (if not fried
properly, the noodles will turn out hard and not fluffed
up).
- Loosen up the noodles and then
gather them up into serving-sized balls.
Toss each ball into the hot oil and fry until golden.
You may choose to use a suitable implement (I used a bamboo
skewer) to hold up a portion of the noodles and then them
baste the standing up portion with hot oil via a ladle so
that "standing (or flying) noodles" can be produced (see
photo above).
- When done, set the fried noodles
on top of paper towels to drain, and then set aside.
Cook the Tomato Sauce
gravy
- Fry the chopped onions in some oil.
- When the onions are about to
brown, add the garlic and fry momentarily.
- Add chicken slices.
- When the chicken has turned
colour, add the prawns and when these have turned colour,
add the scallops.
- Add oyster sauce and light soy
sauce to taste.
I use a liberal amount of oyster sauce.
- Add an amount of tomato sauce
which is sufficient to colour the gravy to a good red and
bring sufficient tomato sauce taste to it (your choice).
- Now add boiling water to the fry
to an amount which you want for the gravy (you will want the
fried noodles to be decently covered by gravy so so your
best to judge how water is needed to be added - err on the
side of a lower amount; more can be added later if there is
not enough gravy.
Bring the whole thing to the boil.
- Prepare a cornflour (starch)
slurry (a tablespoon in some 30 - 50 mL of room temperature
water); stir well and then drip drop into the boiling gravy.
Stir well while adding the slurry.
- Add your greens (I usually add
these at this stage but you can do it earlier).
- Taste and adjust the taste with
soy, oyster and tomato sauce as may be needed.
You can add your favourite condiments at this stage.
I used white pepper and a liberal amount of Knorr
Chicken Stock Powder.
- Adjust the final thickness of the
gravy with starch slurry if needed.
- When all is to your satisfaction,
ladle out portion of the gravy onto the top of the
previously fried noodles and serve quickly before the
noodles get soggy.
ENJOY!
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*Kuching people
use the term "tomato sauce" rather than "tomato ketchup", which
is a bit strange given the probable etymology of the word
"ketchup" which is said to originate from the Hokkien word
kê-chiap which means fish sauce. |
All my cooking (some
without recipes) can be found here (click on each photo to go to
that dish's page):
http://clemkuek.com/photoalbum/photo696.html
Video presentations can be
found here:
Earlier
days:
https://youtu.be/BWyHY1h9Y5s
More
recently:
https://youtu.be/cph2XmwuQLU
www.clemkuek.com
25 August
2025
Created by Clem Kuek
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